Clay Nesler

Clay Nesler is the Vice President of Global Energy and Sustainability for the Building Efficiency business of Johnson Controls. In this role, he is responsible for energy and sustainability policy, programs, and strategy. He also leads the company’s global environmental sustainability council and is responsible for environment and sustainability practices across the company’s global manufacturing operations. Since joining Johnson Controls in 1983, Clay has held a variety of leadership positions in research, product development, marketing, and strategy in both the United States and Europe.

Nesler serves on the board of American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the executive group of the US DOE/EPA SEE Action network and is a member of the Alliance to Save Energy International Steering Committee. He helped establish the UN Sustainable Energy for All Building Efficiency Accelerator and serves as chair of the Industrial Advisory Board of the US-China Clean Energy Research Center and is co-chair of the Energy Financing and Investment Working Group in the US-China Energy Cooperation Program. In 2009, Nesler started the Johnson Controls Institute for Building Efficiency which has recently been integrated within the World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, where he serves on the advisory group.

Nesler has previously served as vice-chair of the World Environment Center and participated on the Wisconsin Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming, the Task Force on National Energy Policy and Midwestern Regional Competitiveness, and the advisory boards of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of International Studies. He also served as a sustainable buildings track advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative and as chair of ASHRAE TC1.4, Control Theory and Applications.

Nesler received BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a co-inventor on twelve patents. He is a winner of the 2005 Corenet Global Innovator’s Award, the 2012 VERGE 25 award and received a 2015 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. Nesler is also the past board president of the Florentine Opera Company, the sixth oldest professional opera company in America.